|
WDM Home
Special Features
>>Artifact Articles
|
Artifact Articles: In A Prairie Attic:
Bladon Family Toys
 By Collections Curator Ruth Bitner
February 2003
Clockwork tin peacock manufactured by Hans Eberl, Nuremburg,
c. 1915. Germany was known for its fine mechanical toys.
WDM Photo, WDM 1995-S-2179
In A Prairie Attic: Bladon Family Toys is the Saskatchewan
Western Development Museum’s intriguing exhibit of early 20th
century toys and games from the Bladon family of Lang,
Saskatchewan. Who were these people? How did their toys survive
some 80 years and seven children?
The story begins in 1910 when A.R.(Dick) and Rilla Bladon and
their six young children boarded the train in Illinois and
headed for a new life in Saskatchewan. They crossed the border
at North Portal on a dry, dusty spring day, heading for land
along the SOO Line, about 10 miles northeast of Lang in
southeast Saskatchewan. The family, along with their horses and
cattle, got off the train at Yellow Grass, the nearest station
to their destination. The farm was still 15 miles away.
Years later, Bill, one of the six children who made the trip
from Illinois, wondered what his parents must have thought as
they surveyed what he described as the “distance that was never
ending till it met the blue sky.”
In many ways, the family was typical of American immigrants to
the Last Best West; they needed farm land for their sons, they
came by train bringing their livestock and belongings in a
boxcar, and they were experienced dryland farmers. They had many
advantages over most European immigrants.
In other ways, however, the Bladon family was different. For
nearly 75 years, the large two-storey house they bought in 1920
from a neighbour, was home. Four brothers, Harold, Carl, Buck
and Bill and their sister Eva, lived there for the rest of their
lives. Only two children, Arthur and Mildred, married and left
home. Arthur, who farmed nearby, had only one child, a daughter
Audrey. Mildred had no children.
Fortunately for the Western Development Museum and for the
people of Saskatchewan, the family were savers. When Bill, the
last of the five siblings who lived on the farm, died in 1994,
his executor recognized the treasure that was hidden away in the
family home and the WDM was contacted.
Museum staff made the trip to Lang in 1995 and were delighted
with what they found. Tucked away in the attic and verandah were
dozens of toys, children’s books, games and playthings of all
description. Remarkably, many of the toys were in their original
boxes. Games had no missing pieces and storybooks were almost
new. There were even unopened store-bought Christmas stockings.
Boxes and trunks held machinery company trade literature from
companies long forgotten. A lifetime accumulation of documents
and papers told the story of farming in the province, and traced
the lives of the Bladon family through nearly eight decades on
the land. To say that the WDM was interested was an
understatement!
The WDM acquired more than 1700 artifacts from the Bladon home
in addition to several hundred farm machinery company pamphlets,
booklets, and advertising materials. The real treasure, however,
was toys.
Months went into cataloguing the collection once it arrived at
the WDM Curatorial Centre in Saskatoon. Each artifact was
documented and photographed. Eaton’s catalogues from the teens
and early 1920s provided illustrations, descriptions and prices.
Exhibit planning began in 1997. Because so many of the artifacts
had been stored away in the farm house attic, the WDM chose to
present the collection in a structure that suggests the look of
an attic. There are over 300 artifacts in the exhibit; more than
200 are playthings. There are dolls and doll furniture; tea sets
and cooking toys; storybooks and board games; card games and
puzzles; mechanical wind-up and farm toys; trains and toy guns;
building sets and jack-in-the boxes. The toys date from 1910 to
1920 and are typical of what mail order shoppers could buy from
Eaton’s.
Children’s books are featured throughout the exhibit. Their
colourful covers must have delighted their young owners. Stories
range from educational themes, which often taught religious or
moral principles, to adventure tales written for entertainment
and relaxation.
Artifacts were also chosen to tell the story of the Bladon
family--their lives at home, as farmers and as community
builders. WDM Staff was privileged to meet Mildred Bladon Rea,
the youngest of the Bladon children, who was born in
Saskatchewan in 1910. Mildred shared memories of family life
with her parents, five brothers and sister Eva. Visitors to the
exhibit can hear her reminisce.
The WDM invites you to come and enjoy a close-up view of toys
from generations past. You will have fun looking at the toys and
will gain awareness of what it was like to grow up in
Saskatchewan in the teens and 1920s. A self-guided tour booklet
will enhance your understanding of the exhibit.
In A Prairie Attic: Bladon Family Toys is showing at the WDM
Story of People in Yorkton, SK. For further information please
call (306) 783-8361.
Mechanical hen and chick manufactured by Hans Eberl, Nuremburg.
Eaton’s 1916-17 catalogue described it as a most amusing toy. It
sold for 45 cents.
WDM photo, WDM-1995-S-2180
Be the first to hear about new artifact articles, events, and
more!
|
